Baseball 'Cats Get Conference Split With West Virginia State

Apr 25, 2017

BUCKHANNON – The West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcat baseball team earned another split in a twin bill, this time with the West Virginia State Yellow Jackets today in a Mountain East Conference doubleheader at Hank Ellis Field.

The 'Cats dropped a 2-1 decision in game one but rallied to take game two by a 7-5 score.

The split kept Wesleyan in second place in the MEC South Division. They are still currently one game behind first place Concord and one game ahead of third place Charleston.

Game one was a pitching battle between Wesleyan's Zach Henderson and West Virginia State's Colby Gainer.

West Virginia State struck first with a run in the top of the first.

Wesleyan tied the game in the bottom of the third when John Koon hit a sacrifice fly that scored Greg Smith.

West Virginia State pushed their game winner across in the top of the fifth when they scored an uneared run on a Wesleyan error.

The Bobcats collected just five hits in the contest.

Henderson pitched well but suffered the loss.

His record dropped to 2-1 as he went 5 2/3 innings and gave up just one earned run on seven hits while fanning one.

Game two was a much different affair for the Bobcat offense which pounded out 14 hits.

After giving up a run to West Virginia State in the top of the first, Eric Forbrick countered with a three-run home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the first to treat Wesleyan to a 3-1 lead.

Wesleyan tacked on another run in the bottom of the second when Alex Skinner singled home Dominic Castello and they made it a 5-1 game in the bottom of the third when Koon scored on a ground out hit by Forbrick.

Wesleyan increased their lead in the bottom of the fifth to 6-1 when Ryan Kiser (pictured) singled to right field which scored Smith.

West Virginia State chased across four runs in the top of the sixth inning to close the gap to 6-5.

Wesleyan added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth when Skinner scored from third base on a passed ball.

Chris Metrick came into the game in the top of the eighth and preserved the win for Wesleyan racking up his seventh save of the season.

Travis Perry (3-1) started the game and picked up the win tossing 5 2/3 innings. He gave up four runs on four hits and struck out one.

Kiser led the offense with three hits while Smith, James Fraser and Skinner each had two apiece.

The split left Wesleyan with a 16-23 mark overall and a 13-9 ledger in the MEC.

Wesleyan and West Virginia State will play another league doubleheader tomorrow starting at 3 p.m. at Hank Ellis Field.